Managing Trade Secrets for Legal Security
It's interesting to see the growing number of Fortune 500 companies and Global 1000 businesses with blogs by CEO and other senior level executives who are blogging for their companies.
Today, we discovered another, The Manufacturing Industry Blog by Lynette McTigue, the Global Industry Marketing Manager for Xerox Global Services. On that corporate blog, Xerox highlights current industry themes and challenges, and how manufacturing organizations use document-related concepts and technologies to reduce costs, improve client relationships and increase productivity.
What caught our attention was this link to Enterprise Security – Tightening Your Grip on Trade Secrets, a white paper by David Drab, Xerox's thought leader on security, He makes some excellent points about managing trade secrets we'd like to share with our readers here.
In today's world, if trade secrets are not nailed down they are more likely to walk out the door and into the hands of a competitor. Plain and simple they are at high risk, and perhaps someone's job is or will be as well. This is the way it works:A company hires an employee because of her education, knowledge and expertise. The company pays her to invent, to create new ideas that ultimately add value in profitability and corporate growth. She does her job well, then after a half dozen years or so, greener pastures are on the horizon--bigger earning potential, more prestige, career fast-tracking. She markets the idea she was paid to create in pursuit of fame and fortune. She accepts the offer she can't refuse from a competitor and before too long the idea becomes a new product launch. Her former company files a theft of trade secrets lawsuit and ownership litigation ensues.
Many variations of this scenario unfold each day in enterprises across the globe providing endless drama. They represent the tip of the iceberg in spectrum of trade secret theft and misappropriation that extends far beneath the surface into high-stakes espionage. Trade secret litigation is a public spectacle. It is very costly and time intensive, not to mention the negative impact on reputation and shareholder confidence that results. Unfortunately, many of these kinds of cases could have been avoided had there been an effective trade secret management system in place that explicitly described company policies, procedures and protocols governing the identification, handling and use of trade secret information. An organization that exhibits a languid posture towards trade secret management subtly diminishes the importance of ownership, use and control. A person with authorized access can more easily rationalize that ownership is discretionary even though signed confidentiality agreements may be in place. The corporate message simply is not clear, it is not concrete and it is not convincing. Without a management system and definitive handling protocols, trade secrets are vulnerable and at high risk.
Many of our clients use a Publication Clearance System as a component of their companies' Trade Secret Management. The pub clearance is one important part of filtering and identifying potential trade secrets before anyone in the company inadvertently discloses a trade secret to the public. Another key component of an effective innovation protection system is a secure repository for managing and protecting access to critical trade secrets.
What does your company use to protect its valuable trade secrets? If you're not sure, or wonder if adequate systems are securing your innovations, you may want to contact us for a complimentary review of how your trade secrets are safeguarded. You might also call David Drab at Xerox, who clearly understands the problems and solutions for trade secret management. Heck, with so much at stake for your company, you should probably give us both a call to see how we can help.
